Wind whips up health fears; wind turbines and their "health effects".

Yet another chapter in uphill battle that alternative energy sources face.



Hundreds of giant turbines in the Oregon desert will bring power, but residents nearby raise concerns about health effects and an end to their quiet way of life.

BOARDMAN -- Sherry Eaton pulled into the driveway of her rural, high-desert home to see one of several giant wind turbines being assembled a half-mile away.

"I started to cry," Eaton, 57, recalled of her first sight of the Willow Creek Wind Project in late July. "They're going to be hanging over the back of our house, and now there's the medical thing."

"The medical thing" is new research suggesting that living close to wind turbines, as Eaton and her 60-year old husband, Mike, soon will be doing, can cause sleep disorders, difficulty with equilibrium, headaches, childhood "night terrors" and other health problems.

Dozens of wind turbines are taking shape along Oregon 74, a designated Oregon Scenic Byway, near the home the Eatons have shared for 19 years.

Dr. Nina Pierpont of Malone, N.Y., coined the phrase "wind turbine syndrome" for what she says happens to some people living near wind energy farms. She has made the phrase part of the title of a book she's written called "Wind Turbine Syndrome: A Report on the Natural Experiment." It is scheduled for publication next month by K-Selected Press, of Santa Fe, N.M.

In contrast to those who consider wind turbines clean, green and an ideal source of renewable energy, Pierpont says living or working too close to them has a downside. Her research says wind turbines should never be built closer than two miles from homes.

Pierpont, 53, is a 1991 graduate of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and has a doctorate in population biology from Princeton University. Her interest was piqued by a wind farm being built near her upstate New York home, and she studied 10 families living near wind turbines built since 2004 in Canada, England, Ireland, Italy and the United States.


Effect on inner ear

Pierpont's findings suggest that low-frequency noise and vibration generated by wind machines can have an effect on the inner ear, triggering headaches; difficulty sleeping; tinnitus, or ringing in the ears; learning and mood disorders; panic attacks; irritability; disruption of equilibrium, concentration and memory; and childhood behavior problems.

Concerns also are coming out of Europe about low-frequency noise from newly built wind turbines. For example, British physician Amanda Harry, in a February 2007 article titled "Wind Turbines, Noise and Health," wrote of 39 people, including residents of New Zealand and Australia, who suffered from the sounds emitted by wind turbines.

According to Pierpont, eight of the 10 families in her study moved out of their homes.

"All these problems were resolved as soon as these people got away from the turbines, got in the car and drove away from the house," she said.

Mike Logsdon, director of development for Invenergy, developer of the 48 wind turbines under construction in the Willow Creek Wind Project, said he's heard of Pierpont's findings, but his 5-year-old company doesn't find them credible.

"We've had a number of other wind farms over the country and residents living by them and never had any problems," Logsdon said.

Invenergy has built and operates wind farms in Canada and Poland and in 12 states in the United States, Logsdon said. The company has 1,200 megawatts in production and is building 600 megawatts this year. The 72-megawatt Willow Creek Wind Project near the Eatons' home is scheduled to start producing electricity Jan. 1.

If Pierpont's theories gain acceptance, decisions on where future wind energy farms are built could be affected. Last year, more than one-third of all new power capacity in the United States, roughly 5,000 megawatts, was generated by wind turbines, said Joseph Beamon, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Energy in Washington, D.C.


Demand will grow


Meanwhile, a U.S. Department of Energy report said demand for electricity is likely to grow 40 percent in the next 22 years in the United States alone, with 20 percent of the nation's power generated by wind turbines, he said.

The Eatons and their neighbors have more to worry about than the Willow Creek Project. Approval was given July 25 by the Oregon Facilities Siting Council for construction of as many as 400 more wind turbines in the nearby Shepherds Flat Wind Project spanning parts of Gilliam and Morrow counties. The planned 909-megawatt project by Caithness Energy of Chicago is expected to be the largest wind farm on Earth, generating enough peak energy to power 225,000 homes.

"Man, this whole country is going to be windmills," said a dismayed Denny Wade, 59, a railroad worker and neighbor of the Eatons.

He and his wife, Lorrie, a 53-year-old schoolteacher in Hermiston, live three-quarters of a mile from one of Willow Creek's turbines. The Wades had planned to sell the home where they've lived for four years and build a retirement home on a knoll 200 yards away with a view of Mount Hood.

"Now, the view that it had is all windmills," Wade said. "I didn't move out there to view windmills."

But Denny Wade's larger concern is his vulnerability to migraine headaches. Although not everyone living near wind turbines experienced headaches, Pierpont's research suggests "everyone with pre-existing migraines" developed headaches by living near the wind generators.

The Wades scrapped plans to build a new home and hope to sell their 42 acres and move, they said.


Issues never raised


Morrow County planner Carla McLane said potential health issues never were raised during the planning process in her county, and the opportunity to appeal has passed. The potential effects of turbines on the scenic values of Oregon 74 never were brought up in hearings he attended, said Terry Tallman, Morrow County Commission chairman.

Generally, wind energy farms have been welcomed in this sparsely settled corner of the state, Tallman said. Tax revenues from the wind farms will be distributed to the counties, public schools, park and recreation districts and fire departments, he said.

"Everybody that I've talked to has been very happy," he said, adding that some on whose property the turbines are being built intend to retire on the income they receive.

"I think it's a good thing," Ron Wyscaver, 40, a neighbor of the Eatons and Wades, said of the wind turbines.

Caithness first proposed a 105-megawatt Shepherds Flat Project in 2002, then applied to the state for the larger project two years ago, McLane said. The project was so large it went to the Energy Facilities Siting Council, where it received the go-ahead to start construction.

Potential medial problems aside, wind turbines will wreck the tranquility that Mike and Sherry Eaton came to this remote place to find, Sherry Eaton said. She drives 90 miles a day to and from her job in Hermiston so they can live in the high-desert setting.

"When you come home from work, everything drains away from you because it's so quiet and peaceful," she said, adding that's about to end.

"Now we are going to have to listen to those windmills: Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!" she said.

 

Re: Wind whips up health fears; wind turbines and thier "health effects".

...what?

Wind turbines cause...what?

I hope this was a joke article.

It's just like me saying I'm allergic to Al Gore and then suing him for emotional distress or something.

 

Re: Wind whips up health fears; wind turbines and thier "health effects".

Agreed Auston .... I remember the arguments against wind power back in the 70s from interfering with TV signals to killing migrating birds. But now this? I have a funny ringing in my ear too -- DAMN! It must be all them wind turbines up near San Jose!!!

(I live about 200+ miles away)

I think my neighbor's rat dog is louder and more annoying than a wind-driven turbine... and smells a lot worse too. And don't get me started on the flies!!! Wait, maybe the dog is causing my ear problem!!!!

GET RID OF ALL DOGS!!!

 

Re: Wind whips up health fears; wind turbines and thier "health effects".

I read a while back about the noise issue. They also don't like the looks issue - that is one reason they are using to fight them in western MD and off the coast of CT. But I had not heard the health issue.

 

Re: Wind whips up health fears; wind turbines and thier "health effects".

One of our Wichita network affiliates did a report featuring a guy living near a burgeoning wind farm who stated that the turbines would add to global warming and upset global wind patterns. No sources cited by him or the reporter, they just put it out there.

Now, I'm sure there is some heat from the turbine, but unless we crawl back in caves and eschew the campfire, how do we do much better than wind, solar, geo where available?

Firesale your land to me, and I'll live by them.

 

Re: Wind whips up health fears; wind turbines and thier "health effects".

i had night terrors as a child... no windmills anywhere near my house

 

Re: Wind whips up health fears; wind turbines and thier "health effects".

Waaah
Hey, everywhere you look there are cell towers. They are butt-fugly.
That's progress. Whatcha gonna do? Devolve?
NIMBY? I'd rather have a windmill in my back yard than a terrorist.

 

Re: Wind whips up health fears; wind turbines and thier "health effects".

10 families is the study group?? I could probably 39 people that have been kidnapped by lizard people.

 

Re: Wind whips up health fears; wind turbines and thier "health effects".

I have heard of something similar wher low frequency noise causes problems and its a well studied phenomena.

It was called something else. It occurs when the ice flows in the far north start to crack in the spring. The process can last weeks to months depending on the thaw and the noise is associated with people going temporarily insane. If I remember correctly, it was related to an inability to reach restful sleep.

However its hard to call a study of 10 families scientific. It might be the basis to get a proper study going, but it shouldn't be considered evidence in itself. To publish a book instead of a review paper on something like this seems inappropriate.

If anybody remember the correct name for that type of noise, please let me know...its going to drive me nuts until I remember

 

Re: Wind whips up health fears; wind turbines and thier "health effects".

Subsonics? I know that this is how animals know of an earthquake or bad storm before most humans are able to discern the changes...

 

Re: Wind whips up health fears; wind turbines and thier "health effects".

THAT'S IT! Ahhhh....peace

 

Re: Wind whips up health fears; wind turbines and thier "health effects".

Dr. Nina Pierpont will sell lots of books and become a highly paid expert witness in numerous law suits. That will be enought for her. America - ya gotta love it.

Still, the real answer on energy is not the continual expansion of demand, but living smaller and more efficiently. I look at the size of suburban homes, and at the two SUV's parked in the drive and am amazed that we can't break this rather simple code.

More wind-more nukes-more solar -less oil!!!!

 

Re: Wind whips up health fears; wind turbines and thier "health effects".

Don't move to the woods. Trees grow at what? 2 to 4 hz. Im sure that would jelly some of the cry baby's inards.

 

Re: Wind whips up health fears; wind turbines and thier "health effects".

I wonder what sort of "problems" you would find on our coasts where waves crash onto the shoreline. Low frequency sound once again- never stops??

Even if this MD is correct , the signs/symptoms/effects are fairly minor relative to say the ocean rising 12"(if you fear Global warming) , or sucking in the gunk that used to come out of coal fired plants stacks.

Bring on the Wind Turbines, they beat all the alternatives.

Charlie

 

Re: Wind whips up health fears; wind turbines and thier "health effects".

Thank you! Now I have another excuse for my occasionally inexcusable behavior. "I can't help myself -- it's the trees..."

As to subsonics causing problems with humans, I'm pretty much of a skeptic about all things but this one I can buy. Subsonics cause animals to become agitated, why not humans?

And I agree that 10 families is not a statistically sufficient population, but when 8 of the 10 move away it at least warrants further study.

 

Re: Wind whips up health fears; wind turbines and thier "health effects".

It's amazing what can be turned into a "problem" when some lawyer sees an opportunity for a class action lawsuit. Oh, the horrors, having to look at distant windmills and possibly even faintly being able to hear them (or not) and worrying about their effect on your health as you drink beer and smoke cigarettes in your back yard.

As a kid on the farm, I had no problems sleeping to the steady knocking sound that a water pumping windmill makes every time the sucker rod reverses direction.

Welcome to America, where the bumper stickers should all say "End global warming, but don't make me drive a tiny, slow car."

 

Re: Wind whips up health fears; wind turbines and thier "health effects".

There are a several wind farms across the border into Wyoming, on range land with nothing around but cows. Oh No! It's the cause of mad cow disease!

B.L.E., I think you got it right, just add, "give me cheap electricity and gas" to the "End global warming, but don't make me drive a tiny, slow car."

 

Re: Wind whips up health fears; wind turbines and thier "health effects".

I wonder how bad it would be if mitigation were forced on the developers. If a turbine is with X feet of a living residence, they must add additional sound insulation and newer windows to reduce the effect....as often happens when airports expand.

 

Re: Wind whips up health fears; wind turbines and thier "health effects".

And this supposed noise is worse than, say, trucks going by on
a nearby interstate [where millions of people live] HOW??
.
_H*

 

Re: Wind whips up health fears; wind turbines and thier "health effects".

^or a train barrelling through town? (that's what I have to contend with every night between 9 and 11pm)

Yeah, even living 3 miles away from the tracks those "sonics" do drive me insane at times. However, I wonder how much of this problem is actual and not perceived or a placebo effect? If people think something will make them sick, they will feel sick...